Effective April 1, 2025, Alberta’s child care funding model underwent significant changes, including the implementation of a flat-rate parent fee, the elimination of the child care subsidy, and the introduction of optional supplemental fees for additional services. The report explores how these shifts have affected families’ out-of-pocket costs and participation in regulated child care, drawing on provider and family experiences during the early months of the new funding approach.

This report contains a snapshot of the Council for Early Learning and Care’s work and associated impacts between September 2024 and August 2025. It provides updates on publications, collaborations and advocacy work towards building an effective system of early learning and child care in Edmonton that is high quality, affordable, inclusive, flexible and culturally responsive. Through strong partnership and collaborative work, the Council has taken substantial steps to detail the needs of three domains for high quality ELCC: the workforce environment, learning environments, and policy and systems environments.

This living document reflects the voices, values, and experiences of newcomer and ethnocultural families navigating Early Learning and Child Care (ELCC) systems in Canada. It is both a tool and a conversation starter, offering educators a window into the cultural identities, languages, and hopes that families bring to their child’s educational journey.

To explore the question What does high-quality inclusive, early learning and child care look like in practice, and what is required to deliver and sustain it? the Council for Early Learning and Care (CELC) convened a Co-Design Lab. Through explorations of workforce, learning, and policy and system environments, the Lab resulted in the development of key recommendations for action. A full summary and 1-page brief are available.

This publication introduces readers to the framework for the initiative, including benefits, issues and actions to be taken as the system is built.

Ce document met en évidence les principaux avantages de l'initiative GEEPEC, les problèmes en suspens et les actions recommandées dans les cinq domaines d'intervention.

On September 26, 2024, the Community-University Partnership for the Study of Children, Youth, and Families and the ECELC hosted a knowledge-to-action workshop on early learning and child care. The workshop aimed to share results from the Alberta Parent Survey on Early Learning and Child Care and identify opportunities to improve the quality, cultural relevance, affordability, accessibility, inclusivity, and flexibility of early learning and child care. The following report reflects the key recommendations developed by participating stakeholders.

On September 26, 2024, the Community-University Partnership for the Study of Children, Youth, and Families and the ECELC hosted a knowledge-to-action workshop on early learning and child care. The workshop aimed to share results from the Alberta Parent Survey on Early Learning and Child Care and identify opportunities to improve the quality, cultural relevance, affordability, accessibility, inclusivity, and flexibility of early learning and child care. The following report reflects the key recommendations developed by participating stakeholders.

This report contains a snapshot of the Edmonton Council for Early Learning and Care’s work and associated impacts between September 2023 and August 2024. It provides context to understand the significance of the ECELC’s advocacy and policy initiatives and demonstrates how the Council continues to work towards building an effective system of early learning and child care in Edmonton that is high quality, affordable, inclusive, flexible and culturally responsive while being publicly planned, regulated and funded, just like other core public services.

Federal and provincial governments have embarked on a major undertaking to build systems of early learning and child care across Canada that meet high standards for quality, affordability, accessibility, inclusion, and flexibility. The success of this plan—the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Care (CWELCC) initiative—will depend partly on whether changes to early learning and care meet the needs and expectations of parents. To learn about parents’ views, the Alberta Parent Survey on Early Learning and Child Care was conducted in 2022 with over 1400 parents in Alberta with young children. The present report, the fifth in a series based on this survey, is focused on flexibility. Parents’ Views About the Flexibility of Early Learning and Child Care in Alberta includes detailed findings and recommendations for optimizing the way in which the CWELCC is implemented in Alberta.